


midnight cuppa

by perfectlyrose



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 07:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10849188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: After an adventure gone bad, Rose seeks out the comfort of a cup of tea in the middle of the night.





	midnight cuppa

Rose stared down into the dark well of liquid in her favorite mug fighting back the sting of tears that she knew were completely irrational. They were out of milk again but she hadn’t realized until she’d already brewed a cup of one of the teas she preferred with a splash of milk. 

She was  _ not _ going to cry over an imperfect cup of tea, no matter how bad her day had been.

Leaving one hand wrapped around the warm mug, she propped her head up with the other. This was so stupid. She just wanted to go back to bed and get some sleep but she’d already tried that and failed.

“There you are.” The Doctor’s voice, sleep-rough and slower than normal, startled her into looking up. He was standing in the doorway of the galley, one hand ruffling his already impossibly tousled hair and the other shoved in the pocket of the flannel pajama trousers slung low on his hips. He hadn’t bothered to put on a shirt before coming to look for her. “Woke up and you weren’t there.”

“Sorry,” she muttered, looking back down at her cooling tea. “Came to get a cuppa.”

“Could do with one of those myself,” he said.

Rose pushed her mug across the table. “You can have this one, if you want.”

The Doctor frowned a bit as he sat down and reached for the mug. He sniffed it and then looked at her with questions in his eyes. “This is one of your favorites. You sure you don’t want it?”

“We’re out of milk.”

“Ah.” He took a sip of the tea and then set it aside with a grimace that made Rose crack a small smile.

“Not enough sugar?”

“Not nearly enough, no,” he agreed, shooting a sideways glare at the offending mug before reaching across the table for Rose’s hand.

“Not used to you being up and about before me. Did you get any sleep?”

Rose shook her head mutely. She wasn’t going to count the thirty minutes of nightmares as actual sleep and she didn’t want to worry him. 

He squeezed her hand. “Want to talk about it?”

“Don’t think it’ll help,” she said. “You saw the same thing back there that I did.”

She hated that the tears were returning. It was so hard to hold them back. There was just something about kitchen chats in the middle of the night that left her feeling vulnerable, left her emotions roiling closer to the surface than normal.

“We did everything we could to help, Rose,” he said gently.

The gentle comfort he was offering sent her over the edge.“It wasn’t enough,” she said around a sob.

The Doctor was around the table in a flash and pulled her to her feet so he could wrap her in a his familiar embrace. Rose didn’t know how long they stayed that way. It felt like a small eternity but she knew it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. As her tears finally ran dry, she became aware of the soothing stream of words he was whispering to her in a language the TARDIS wasn’t translating and she fought back a shiver.

He ran his hand over her hair and she nuzzled against his chest, tightening her grip on him.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Always.”

Rose leaned back to look up at him. “Are you okay?”

“Always alright, me.”

She narrowed her eyes at his flippant response. “Don’t lie to me, Doctor.”

He pulled her back to him. “I’m not, Rose. So long as I’ve got you, I’ll always be alright.”

Silence reigned for a few moments after that declaration. Rose broke it by moving up to press a gentle kiss to his lips. “Let’s go back to bed,” she said once she pulled away.

They left the now cold cup of tea on the table to deal with in the morning as they walked back towards their room together..


End file.
